Chinese technology shares tumbled for a second day after Beijing's crackdown on the internet industry, erasing more than $260B of value,
reports Bloomberg.
Hong-Kong listed shares of Alibaba Group (NYSE:
BABA) and Tencent Holdings (
OTCPK:TCEHY) fell 8.3% and 5.5%, respectively after the Communist Party unveiled regulations to root out monopolistic practices in the internet industry.
Analysts have estimated that Ant's $280B valuation could be cut in half due to stricter regulations. Alibaba, Ant and Tencent alone commanded a combined market capitalization of nearly $2T before last week.
Stocks of JD.com (NASDAQ:
JD) slumped 8.1%, Xiaomi (
XI) dropped 6.1% as China seeks to curtail the growing influence of internet-sector leaders.
Meituan Dianping (
MEIT), the food-delivery start-up that has expanded into hotel bookings and movie tickets, dived a further 6.9%.
The new guidelines, which will see China define for the first time anti-competitive behavior in the tech sector, is the latest wing-clipping of high-flying digital platforms in the country after Beijing suspended the blockbuster IPO of Ant Financial last week.
While Xi's government has been steadily tightening its grip on the world's second-largest economy, it has until recently taken a relatively hands off approach toward businesses that dominate China's burgeoning internet, e-commerce and digital finance industries.
China's antitrust watchdog is seeking feedback on a raft of regulations till Nov. 30 which will establish a framework against suppressing economic competition.
The new rules will restrict targeting specific customers through their online behavior. Violators may be forced to divest assets, intellectual property or technologies, open up their infrastructure and adjust their algorithms.
Alibaba and Tencent have mostly been free to acquire and invest in new businesses, becoming key backers of prominent startups while building sprawling empires.